gardening

Chicken Chronicles Returns, part 4 AUGUST 1, 2012 This afternoon I watered the lemon trees, and as usual the chickens gathered to drink the run off. I was on the garden side of the fence observing them, looking for any sign of remorse. It was business as usual. I don’t think they even remember […]

Chicken Chronicles Returns, Part 3 July 30, 2012 FLOPPY IS DEAD! She didn’t die from starvation or a lonely barren heart; she died from a brutal gang-land attack perpetrated by the other hens. In other words, Floppy was murdered. Muhammad, who ran in the house to tell me the news, was […]

Chicken Chronicles Returns; Part 1 It’s been nearly a year since the last April 12, 2012 Chicken Chronicle entry. At that time I reported that “all was quiet on the home front.”I spoke entirely too soon. Just two days later, the chickens turned me into a liar. What follows are short synopses, in […]

We are having our first annual gardening challenge here at SMHS blog. Yaay! We hope to inspire and encourage more families to start growing their own food in their back yards, front yards, window seals, on the roof, (yes you can garden on your roof! Google it), wherever you can find a spot to put […]

The Harvest Before we could start to turn over and amend the dirt we had to harvest the old crop. Our broccoli was a hot mess! They didn’t get a lot of crowns, and on top of that the chickens kept snacking on them every time the kids forgot to close the gate. So I […]

Alhamdulillah, we began our first garden last year: tomatoes, celery, basil, bell peppers, and one cucumber made up our crop. The tomatoes were the first to sprout, and Wallahi, I can attest to the truth of what gardeners say: “There is NO comparison between your own homegrown produce and store bought vegetables.” When I bit […]

Uncle Kelly was right. It took six weeks for Floppy to realize she’ll never be a mom. For 42 days we coaxed Floppy outside to eat/drink and move. The mere act of opening the back door was enough to send her into a panicked sprint, at least with Muhammad. When I tried, she’d bristle, hiss […]

Did you know that you can grow almost anything on a trellis? I didn’t – Until I visited my friend Haseenah’s garden and saw watermelloon growing on one of her trellises. Yes watermelon! I thought watermellon would be too heavy but there it was holding on tight and doing just fine, Mashalah. She also grows […]

One of the chickens died. A few weeks ago, I took over the ‘AM snack and water routine’ from my son who prefers to collect the eggs in the evening. Early one morning, the hens, who always race to the gate, clucking and cooing in anticipation of their leftover goodies, were particularly loud. I normally […]

Well, alhumdulilah, I have good news. My Garden is doing great, alhumdulilah! It turns out I was not watering it enough. I was watering everyday, but I was not watering it long enough. I would stand there for about a minute and that was just not enough time. So I started watering them really well, […]